Eleanor Roosevelt said: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” It could also belong to those who believe in the uplifting and empowering words found in these inspiring picture books:

“On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination. …

… You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most trans-formative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.”

Now that we have heard great words of wisdom from one of the most influential writers of current time about the importance of imagination, here are my picks to help unleash and inspire creativity and ingenuity in graduates of all ages: